The M. Night Shyamalan Curse May Finally Be Broken Thanks To Glass' Opening Weekend Box Office
M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass is on track to a hefty box office when it releases January 18, 2019. Industry sources estimate Glass will make between $50 – $75 million during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend and, if it does, the Shyamalan curse may finally be broken.
The Shyamalan Curse Is a B**ch to Break
After The Sixth Sense, the industry hailed Shyamalan as the next big director and expectations were high for this would-be auteur. In 2000, Unbreakable hit to mixed reviews and things didn’t go well after that; Shyamalan wrote and directed disappointment after disappointment, like The Village, Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender, and After Earth.
It’s as if a very angry movie-loving witch cursed him.
The Shyamalan curse theory stuck, and everyone stood by wondering how he managed to get funding for subsequent movies and where his creative genius had run off to hide.
Change Comes for Shyamalan With The Visit and Blumhouse
Things started to look up for Shyamalan when he worked with Blumhouse Productions for The Visit.
And he finally delivered a twist worthy of his career-making The Sixth Sense in The Visit, and quite a “doozy” of a twist, Edwards said in his review. He is very correct.
Shyamalan's Unbreakable Universe, or Eastrail 177 Trilogy, Is Born
With a successful horror movie behind him, Shyamalan made a follow-up to Unbreakable, Split (also with Blumhouse), featuring a man with 24 personalities who has kidnapped three women. It was a January box office success in 2016, raking in $40 million opening weekend and a total box office haul over $278 million worldwide.
With The Visit and Split, it seemed the Shyamalan curse may have finally been broken but the third time is a charm to prove it, and that’s why he needs Glass to be a box office success.
Glass brings back the characters from Unbreakable and Split into a comic book superhero/villain movie that is the brainchild of Shyamalan, not a comic book adaptation — it’s the Unbreakable Universe, also referred to as the Eastrail 177 Trilogy.
Can Glass Be a Box Office Success in January?
If it weren’t for the success of Split in January — the month I lovingly refer to as where movies go to die and rightfully so — Glass‘ January release would signal that it’s terrible. But more likely, distributors Universal (domestically) and Disney (internationally) are betting that the lack of movies, quality or otherwise, to see at this time means more money for Shyamalan’s latest flick.
It also helps that people actually want to see Glass and the return of Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), and David Dunn (Bruce Willis).
If Glass’ box office proves to be huge, the Shyamalan curse will finally be broken. He could always develop another, but that’s a terrible thing to wish on someone, so let’s not do that.
Instead, let’s hope Glass not only performs well at the box office but is also a great movie.
